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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24283384">We Provide...Leverage</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drachesoul/pseuds/Drachesoul'>Drachesoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Red Velvet (K-pop Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Leverage Fusion, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:35:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,232</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24283384</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drachesoul/pseuds/Drachesoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Red Velvet/Leverage AU that nobody wanted. With Irene as the leader of their ragtag group, Seulgi, Wendy, Joy and Yeri are convinced to put aside their "lone wolf" tendencies to work together. Five-chapter planned summer miniseries based off the pilot episode of Leverage. </p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <b>Monday, September 17<sup>th</sup></b>
</p><p>
  <b>Seoul, South Korea</b>
</p><p>Bae Joohyun, better known to her friends and co-workers as Irene, was used to drinking alone. She liked it, it gave her time to sit with her thoughts, enjoy a drink or two and engage in a little people-watching.</p><p>Like tonight. Here it was, barely half past seven and the hotel bar was already beginning to fill with people. She listened in on a few of the conversations happening around her while nursing her second drink and thinking about what to do next.</p><p>At one point she had it all: a stable well-paying career for an insurance company, a loving wife. No kids, but they <em>had</em> been talking about the future together before…</p><p>Irene scowled, downing the drink she was holding to chase away the memories and almost slamming the empty glass on the bar. What use was there in being happy if everything would eventually go to shit anyway?</p><p>The bartender walked by and picked up her glass to wipe it down. He offered her another shot of overpriced whiskey but she waved him off. Not even top-shelf alcohol could improve her mood at this point.</p><p>“Ma’am, the airport shuttle you were asking about will be here in fifteen minutes,” he said and she nodded her head in acknowledgement, taking out her wallet and putting several bills on the bar. It was more than what was on her tab but when the bartender made as if to protest about the extra money Irene shot him a dazzling smile and told him to just keep the change.</p><p>She turned around in her chair and was about to get up and leave when she heard someone call her name.</p><p>“Miss Irene?” The voice in question belonged to a handsome young man with black hair and innocent-looking brown eyes sitting at one of the private booths near the back of the bar. He looked to be a little younger than her but judging from the very expensive suit he was wearing he probably saw more money in a week than she did in an entire year. “Hello, I’m so sorry to interrupt you like this but I’ve been looking for you.”   </p><p>Irene raised one eyebrow and turned away from him. She <em>really</em> wasn’t in the mood to talk with anyone.</p><p>The man raked his fingers through his hair, as if debating what to say that would convince Irene to give him her attention.</p><p>“Please! I’ve read all about you.” <em>That</em> caused Irene to stop in her tracks and turn around, her interest piqued. She had to admit, this was the first time a man had started a conversation like that. The young man stood up, his body language betraying his feelings. He looked nervous, despite the charming smile on his face. Sensing that he had been given an opportunity he gestured for her to join him at his booth.</p><p>“Like for example I read the article about how you found that stolen Rembrandt for your company, saving them what, twelve billion won?”</p><p>“Twelve point three billion,” Irene corrected under her breath. Of course this man was talking to her about her previous job. It was what she was known for after all.</p><p>“And then you cracked that illegal horse racing ring that saved your company another few billion—”</p><p>“I’m sorry, is there a point to this? I know how much money I saved that damn insurance company.”</p><p>The man’s ears turned slightly pink and Irene would have thought it was adorable if she wasn’t in a completely foul mood at this point.</p><p>“I also know that when you needed them the most they turned their backs on you,” he said softly. “What happened to your wife was horrible.”</p><p>Yes. It was. Irene blinked back the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes. Even though it had been almost three years since her world came crashing down on her, thinking about her wife still made her want to cry.</p><p>“I am well aware that what happened was horrible. Did you actually want something or was it your sole goal to make me want to punch you in the face?” Irene’s voice had gone cold.</p><p>The man’s eyes widened and he quickly backpedaled. “Yes, right, I am so sorry.” He cleared his throat. “Actually I’m here to offer you a job.”</p><p>Now that was interesting. What could she, an ex-insurance fraud specialist, possibly have in terms of skills that had a businessman like him looking for her? Irene thought over his possible motives, glancing at the clock above the hotel bar. She still had ten minutes before the airport shuttle got back to the hotel, so she decided to hear him out. “Alright then Mr.—”</p><p>“Kim. Kim Seokjin.”</p><p>“—Kim Seokjin. You have ten minutes before my shuttle arrives. What do you have?”</p><p>With a wide smile, Kim Seokjin reached into his briefcase and pulled out a heavy manila folder, handing it over to Irene. “What do you know about airplane design?”</p><p>Irene shrugged, taking out a pair of reading glasses and beginning to flip through the files she’d been given. From what she could see, a lot of the content was highly technical, detailing the specifications of what appeared to be a next-generation aircraft. There were even economic reports and <em>wow,</em> was that a lot of money being invested. “I’m afraid I’m a layman Mr. Kim, but if you hand me your napkin I might be able to give it a shot.”</p><p>He laughed, his eyes wrinkling up into half-crescents. “I like your humor, Miss Irene.” His jovial expression quickly faded though. “Somebody stole my airplane designs.”</p><p>“And you want me to find them?”</p><p>Kim Seokjin shook his head. “No, I know exactly where they are. I want you to steal them back.”</p><p>Irene blinked.</p><p>
  <em>Well this is a first.</em>
</p><p>XXX</p><p>An hour later found Irene still sitting with Kim Seokjin. She couldn’t explain it, but he seemed like a very genuine man and she’d had her fair share of experience dealing with men who weren’t. After all, it had been her job.</p><p>“You’re sure JYP stole your designs?”</p><p>He nodded his head, “It can’t be a coincidence, my top engineer goes missing, he disappears with all my files and then a week later JYP announces a completely identical project?”</p><p>She was inclined to agree with him. Designs like the ones she’d been shown would have taken months, if not years of careful development. Granted most R&amp;D sectors were secretive but she found it hard to believe a company as big as JYP would have been able to keep a project this big under wraps.</p><p>Irene tilted her head. “I don’t know. It seems overly risky to steal them back, aren’t there other ways?”</p><p>“If I had the time I would. There’s an investor meeting at the end of this month, Miss Irene. With their funding I’ve sunk over a hundred billion won on this design. If I have nothing to show them, I’m dead.”</p><p>Kim Seokjin was playing with absurd amounts of money. It made perfect sense to Irene that if he went to that investor meeting empty-handed they might very well be fishing his body out of the Han River next week. He was desperate.</p><p>He pulled out another folder and passed it across the table to Irene. “Here, look at the people I’ve hired already. Do you recognize any of them?”</p><p>Irene went through the file, noticing not one but several familiar names. “Yes. I’ve chased all of them at one point or anoth—Yerim?” Her eyes widened almost comically. “You hired Kim Yerim?”</p><p>“Is there someone better than her?”</p><p>“No, but Yerim is insane.” Irene shuddered at the thought of working with the young master thief. Out of all the people she’d chased over the years, Kim Yerim had to be one of the best at her craft. She was also the most annoying.</p><p>“Which is why I need you,” Kim Seokjin insisted.</p><p>Irene snorted derisively, closing the folder. “I’m no thief, Mr. Kim.”</p><p>“I have plenty of thieves, Miss Irene. What I need is one honest woman to watch them. Are you in?”</p><p>Irene shook her head. “It’s not going to work, Mr. Kim. These people you’ve hired, they all have the same reputation. They work alone, no exceptions. I find it hard to believe that they would work for you.”</p><p>“They will for three hundred million won each. And for you, as the one heading the whole operation, I’ll double it. This will all be completely off the books, and I’ll even throw in a bonus.”</p><p>He leaned forward and shoved another piece of paper across the table for Irene to look at. She took it and her gaze immediately hardened. This was just too good to be true…</p><p>“You see it right? JYP is insured by SM, your old company. They’re under a seventy-five billion won intellectual rights policy. Miss Irene, how badly do you want to screw over the insurance company that let your wife die?”</p><p>That was a low blow and Irene knew it. The money was enticing enough, three hundred million won was no small chunk of change. If she took this job she could comfortably settle down in a nice apartment in Gangnam, maybe invest it to build herself a bigger nest egg down the road. But now that there was a potential promise of revenge?</p><p>Irene was caught, hook, line and sinker. She’d do this for her wife. “I’m in.”   </p><p>XXX<br/><br/></p><p>
  <b>Thursday, September 20<sup>th</sup></b>
</p><p>
  <b>JYP Aerospace—(well, across the street)</b>
</p><p>“Alright everyone, clear comms,” Irene put on her headset and fiddled with it for a minute, making sure her voice would be broadcasted loud and clear to her other three teammates.</p><p>“Ugh, is this equipment from the eighties or something it’s so old school,” a disgusted voice said. Irene rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore the woman talking in her ear.</p><p>Above her, on the roof of the unfinished office building they had “borrowed” for this operation, Son Seungwan was busy complaining to Irene about her out of date equipment.</p><p>“It’s not like you have anything better, Son,” Irene all but growled. She knew going into this that working with three of the world’s most famous criminals would be a challenge but she didn’t expect for them to be criticizing her every move.</p><p>“Actually I do,” the other woman replied and Irene could her hear opening the rooftop door and walking back down the stairs to their little operations den. “Stand by, I’ll set us up with something nice.”</p><p>“I don’t want any surprises, Seungwan.”</p><p>“How many times have I told you to call me Wendy? Relax Irene, I’ve been doing this since high school. I’m damn good at my job.”</p><p>
  <b>(Flashback, NYC, Five Years Ago)</b>
</p><p>The Ritz hotel was known for its five star service and strict policies regarding the safety and privacy of its many celebrity guests. Certainly something for its manager to be proud of. All of that was ruined one night when he was approached at his desk by the security team, the three burly men flanked by several uniformed police officers.</p><p>And now he was rushing up to the penthouse suite, fielding questions left and right from the police about how he let something like this happen.</p><p>“They came straight from the airport and went up to their room, officers.”</p><p>“So you never actually <em>saw</em> any of them,” the officer replied. Next to him his partner rolled his eyes. How stupid can someone get?</p><p>“No, but the card numbers checked out.”</p><p>The hotel manager fumbled with his master key and pushed by the security guards to unlock the door. It swung open to reveal a young Asian woman sitting on an expensive calf leather couch, sipping on some bubble tea. Three beautiful blonde women dressed as Princess Leia staged a mock lightsaber duel while club music thumped in the background and what looked like several different LED lights bathed the room in a kaleidoscope of color. The woman’s eyes widened as she noticed the intruders.</p><p>The police officers whirled around to face the now completely panicked hotel manager. There was no way he’d be keeping his job after this fiasco. “Does this look like Katy Perry to you?”</p><p>Son Seungwan cleared her throat and waved her hands around like she was pretending to use the Force. “This is not the room you’re looking for.”</p><p>
  <b>Present Day</b>
</p><p>“Check this out, Irene. It’s a brand-new top of the line in-ear mic. It works off the vibrations in your jaw to send sound waves into your ear.”</p><p>Irene sighed inwardly. She was getting impatient with Seungwan—no, <em>Wendy’s</em>—apparent abhorrence for any kind of older technology but she had to admit that the other women knew what she was doing. Wendy was one of the world’s top hackers, catapulting herself to the top of Korea’s Most Wanted list for committing identity theft, fraud, and hacking into secure government databases. On three separate occasions.</p><p>Wendy probably could have used her borderline-genius skills to do some real good in the world but instead she spent her time defrauding rich old white men that came to Korea. Which, now that Irene thought about it, wasn’t the worst thing she could be doing. Irene became introduced to Wendy while working for SM when the other woman managed to hack into the company’s secure servers and steal confidential user data. She successfully blackmailed them for almost a billion won.</p><p>Wendy was the literal embodiment of an evil genius.</p><p>“Well, what do you know, you’re not as useless as you look,” came an irritated voice through the comms.</p><p>“Bro I don’t even know what you do,” was Wendy’s reply.</p><p>Irene could feel the beginnings of a headache form behind her temples. Wendy may be an evil genius but Kang Seulgi was the one person on their little ragtag team of criminals that would be glad to kill them all.</p><p>
  <b>(Flashback, Serbia, 3 Years Ago)</b>
</p><p>Kang Seulgi, wearing a pair of thin wire-rimmed glasses and drinking from her coffee cup, entered through the front doors of the café, seeming completely oblivious to the group of mafia men that were sitting around a table playing cards.</p><p>They turned to look at her, and she paused for a moment to set her mug down on one of the nearby tables. “I’m here to collect the merchandise.”</p><p>As if a switch had been flipped the men all stood up, drawing their guns and pointing them at Seulgi. She merely sighed, picking at an invisible piece of dirt underneath her fingernails. “Very well, let’s get this over with.”</p><p>Three minutes later Seulgi retrieved her unfinished cup of coffee and took a long drink. <em>Good, it was still warm</em>.</p><p>One man remained sitting at the table, staring in horror at the bodies that littered the floor around him. With shaking hands he reached into his jacket and pulled out a signed photocard of a popular Korean girl group called Red Velvet, placing it on the table and scooting away with his hands raised in surrender.</p><p>Kang Seulgi smiled.</p><p>
  <b>Present Day</b>
</p><p>Of course Wendy didn’t think it was at all dangerous to start an argument with a former black-ops turned hitter-for-hire. Before Kang Seulgi graced Korea’s Most Wanted list for assault, assault with a deadly weapon, attempted murder, weapons trafficking and murder she was a decorated soldier with the Korean army. Before the age of twenty-one she had managed to not only get into the White Skull division but also graduate sniper school and receive four separate commendations for her skills in hand-to-hand combat.</p><p>Irene was curious as to why she decided to leave the military life behind and turn to crime but she wasn’t about to pry. Seulgi looked nice enough, sure. When she smiled her eyes turned up into these cute half-crescents that reminded her a bit of her wife. She could also disarm a fully-grown armed assailant in 4.3 seconds. Irene thought the only redeeming factor of Seulgi was that she had a strict code and wouldn’t harm women and children.</p><p>“Ooh, can I have one of those ear thingies, Unnie?”</p><p>Irene startled, jumping in her chair and instinctively putting a hand on her chest to calm her suddenly beating heart.</p><p>Hanging upside-down outside the window of their operations den, the fourth and final member of their team slid down from the scaffolding and made grabby hands for one of Wendy’s in-ear comms.</p><p>Wendy leaned out the window and handed one to the young blonde woman, watching with an indulgent smile on her face as she pulled herself back up. “You can have the whole box if you want.”</p><p>Seulgi watched the interaction and scoffed. “What are you gonna do once she finds out you still live with your parents?”</p><p>Wendy shrugged, a confident smirk still plastered on her face. “It’s the age of the geek, Seul. We run the world.”</p><p>“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.”</p><p>Twenty feet above them, Kim Yerim smiled and put the comm in her ear.</p><p>
  <b>(Flashback, South Korea, 11 years ago)</b>
</p><p>Ten-year-old Kim Yerim stood barefoot in her living room, watching her newest set of foster parents fight. It wasn’t the first time she’d witnessed this and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. She’d been bounced around from foster home to foster home ever since she was a toddler and no matter who she would get placed with they’d give up on her within a few months’ time.</p><p>Honestly, Yeri had long since become numb to it all. The only thing she found solace in these days was her stuffed rabbit. Her birth parents had given it to her before they died and though her precious Mr. Fuzzles had certainly seen better days she wouldn’t let it out of her sight.</p><p>And right now her sights were set firmly on her stuffed rabbit as it dangled carelessly from the fingers of her foster father.</p><p>“You thought I wouldn’t find this? You don’t get your bunny back until you do what I say. So be a good girl Yeri, or at the very least be a better thief.” Her foster father stormed out of the room, leaving his wife sobbing on the couch.</p><p>Yeri knew this set of foster parents wouldn’t work out the second she moved in with them. They never took the time to understand her or talk to her. She wondered how long it would be before she was returned to the group home like an unwanted puppy.</p><p>“I’m going to go outside for some fresh air,” she said to her foster mother, who merely nodded her head and shooed Yeri away, already taking drags on her cigarette and looking more than done with the entire situation.</p><p>Forgoing her shoes, Yeri stepped outside and began walking down the street, counting each and every one of her steps.</p><p>Behind her the house exploded.</p><p>Yeri hugged Mr. Fuzzles tightly and smiled.</p><p>
  <b>Present Day</b>
</p><p>Now that everyone had their new comms set up, Wendy Seulgi and Yeri had managed to get to the roof of the JYP Aerospace building undetected and were waiting to execute Irene’s plan.</p><p>Yeri adjusted her rappelling gear, running her hands softly over the material as if it was her lover. “The last time I used this rig was in Paris four years ago…”</p><p>Seulgi examined the earpiece Wendy had given her with a slight scowl on her face. “Is this thing safe?”</p><p>“Yerim are you talking about the Monet?” Irene cut in, unable to help herself. She’d always wondered who was responsible for the theft that rocked the Parisian art world. She really should have known, Yeri was one of the world’s most renowned shadow thieves in history. Whatever you wanted stolen, Kim Yerim could get it for you. “You stole that?”</p><p>Yeri’s noncommittal grunt confirmed her suspicions.</p><p>“It’s completely safe, Seulgi. It’s still experimental tech though so let me know if you experience anything like nausea, weakness in your right side, stroke,” Wendy paused for a moment to catch her breath. “General strokiness…”</p><p>Seulgi put in her earpiece with a growl, “You’re precisely why I work alone.”</p><p>“Alright ladies, that’s enough!” Irene was getting tired of the chaos and they hadn’t even begun executing the plan yet. “We’re going on my count, not a second sooner. I know you’re all used to being lone wolves, but not this time.”</p><p>“Relax, Irene we know what we’re doing,” Seulgi assured her.</p><p>“That means <em>no</em> freelancing, Yeri,” Irene warned. She could already picture the youngest member of their crew deviating from her carefully concocted plan. “On the count of five.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re all business, aren’t you Irene?” Wendy sulked. “What a no-jam.”</p><p>Irene wanted to scream. “GUYS! We’re on count. Five. Four…”</p><p>Up on the roof, Yeri ran behind Seulgi and Wendy and careened towards the edge of the roof.</p><p>“Three…”</p><p>“She’s gone,” Seulgi said as Yeri dived off the roof. She and Wendy ran to the edge of the roof to watch Yeri freefall towards the ground. “That girl is twenty pounds of crazy in a five-pound bag.”</p><p>Across the street, Irene tore out her in-ear comm for a few precious seconds so she could swear without them hearing her.</p><p>“Son of a bitch, this fucking job is going to be the death of me…”     </p><p> XXX</p><p>Thirty seconds later Kim Yerim dangled upside down outside the JYP building, completely at home in her harness and oblivious to the fact that she was working two hundred feet off the ground. She tilted her head, peering through the windows to gauge the kind of security the building had.</p><p>“Vibration detectors are on,” she relayed the information to Irene who marked off the locations of the detectors on her whiteboard. Because she was stuck across the street Irene would have to rely on information from the other three girls in order to “see” what they were doing. If things got out of hand she would need all the information she could get in order to get them out safely.</p><p>“That means no cutting, Yeri. Use the binary. Wendy, Seulgi what’s your status?”</p><p>“Entering the building now,” came Wendy’s reply. She tossed a bag of supplies to Seulgi and together they opened a rooftop hatch to slowly descend into the building via an old service ladder.</p><p>Yeri pointed her modified white-hot cutting tool and began melting a circular portion of the window. This would allow her to remove the window without triggering the building’s security system. With an appropriate Yeri-sized hole now prepared, she attached a suction cup to the glass and pulled it away, letting them both drop carelessly to the ground below.</p><p>Yeri slunk through the opening and disengaged her rope with a single press of a remote, landing on a desk and dismounting with a confident smirk, looking up at the vibration detectors. Completely soundless.</p><p>Irene exhaled loudly. That was step one complete. But they had only just begun.</p><p>Now that she had managed to successfully infiltrate the JYP building, Yeri moved carefully down the hall and toward a room marked with “Danger: High Voltage”. Pushing open the door she saw a room full of electrical equipment.</p><p>Meanwhile, Seulgi and Wendy had finished descending the service ladder and were sitting on top of one of the elevators, waiting for Yeri’s next move.</p><p>Now even though Wendy was the tech genius out of the three of them, Yeri wasn’t half-bad with computers. The youngest reached into her backpack and pulled out a laptop, setting it up next to the electrical equipment and patching herself into the building’s security cameras just like Wendy had shown her. With that done, she searched around for the wires she needed and crossed them, bypassing the elevator’s emergency protocol and giving her control.  </p><p>“You know maknae, anytime you wanna get—” The rest of Seulgi’s sentence was cut off abruptly as the elevator jerked into motion, descending rapidly.</p><p>Wendy almost lost her balance at the sudden movement and had to brace herself on Seulgi’s shoulder. “Whoa.”</p><p>“The unnies are on their way!” Yeri chirped, her eyes raking over the security feeds to make sure their intrusion was still undetected.</p><p>“Good girl,” Irene praised, marking Yeri’s current position on her whiteboard. “What are you getting from the security feeds, have they realized anything yet?”</p><p>Yeri shook her head, “They don’t see a thing. Wendy-unnie, Seulgi-unnie I’m opening the elevator doors for you right…now.”</p><p>There was a soft <em>ding! </em>and the elevator doors slid open to reveal the hitter/hacker duo. They joined Yeri in the electrical room and notified Irene of their successful infiltration.</p><p>“Good job everyone, that’s step one done,” Irene sat down in her chair with a small sigh. Things could have gone better but considering she was working with a bunch of people who worked as lone wolves she’d take the win. Mr. Kim was right, money really could buy you anything. “All right, that was the easy part, it’s showtime, ladies. We have plans to steal.”  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Okay Yeri, do you hear any chatter on their frequencies?” Irene paced back and forth across the floor of their hideout, waiting for Yeri to respond. How they executed this next part of the plan all depended on how the security guards reacted to their initial intrusion.</p><p>“No, why?” Yeri replied, swiping through the different feeds on her monitor. The guards on duty were just standing around and watching the building’s panels and monitors. They had yet to catch on that Yeri had hijacked their feed and taken over control of their elevators.</p><p>“There’s eight listed on the duty roster, there’s only four at the guard post.” Irene looked at the illegally obtained copy of JYP’s security schedule she’d gotten courtesy of Kim Seokjin.</p><p>Back in the electrical room Yeri huffed in frustration. All the security guards looked similar, with the same navy-blue suits and bulletproof vests. “I can’t even tell how many guys are in the room, how can you tell who’s who?”</p><p>“Haircuts, Yeri. Count the haircuts,” Irene said.</p><p>There was a pause on the other end of the comm and then a small, “I would have missed that…”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“Nothing.”</p><p>A few floors below Yeri, Wendy and Seulgi were busy trying to break into the secure server room. Wendy inserted a ghost key into the locked door and ran a program that would find the correct passcode to open it.</p><p>Seulgi put a finger to her ear. If something went awry it was her job to protect Wendy. “Is there a problem?”</p><p>Irene tilted her head. “Uh, maybe. Run the cameras again, Yeri.”</p><p>Wendy meanwhile was slowly but surely running through the possible passwords. “Ten-digit password? I salute you sir, but nothing can get past the great Son Seungwan.”</p><p>Yeri scrolled through the camera feeds again until she found the missing guards. “Got them, they’re doing their walkthrough an hour early what the f—”</p><p>“Language!” Irene scolded the maknae. “It’s because of the playoffs.”</p><p>Yeri zoomed in on the guard room feed and found a small television screen showing a baseball game. “Impressive. How’d you guess that one?”</p><p>“It’s game five of the playoffs, they’re doing their rounds an hour earlier than usual so they can watch it.” Irene left the explanation at that. The other girls didn’t need to hear her talking about how her wife used to religiously watch every single playoff game of the season. “Find them, Yeri.”</p><p>A second later Yeri replied, “They’re at the stairwell.”</p><p>Irene stifled a curse and turned back to look at the projected image of the building’s blueprint. They were heading straight for where Wendy and Seulgi had gotten off the elevator, there was no way they’d be able to ignore an open door. She had to adjust her plan, make sure they didn’t catch wind of the greater operation.</p><p>“Okay guys here’s what we have to do. We have to squelch them. Keep them from contacting the other guards otherwise this whole plan is blown.”</p><p>Yeri nodded and pressed a series of keys on her laptop, sending a high-pitched ringing sound into the guard’s comm frequency. Now anyone who tried to use their radios would get an unpleasant surprise. She giggled when one of the guards tried using his radio only to jerk his head back, startled by the sound.</p><p>Irene sighed. That was one problem solved. Problems like this were bound to come up, but it moved their timetable and she’d rather not leave the success of this plan to fate. “Seulgi, what I want you to do is clear the zone.”</p><p>“Affirmative.”</p><p>“Oh and use Wendy as bait.”</p><p>Seulgi smiled, shrugging off her jacket, handing it to Wendy and disappearing around the corner of the hallway.</p><p>“Use Wendy as what now? Hold up, this wasn’t part of the plan. I have <em>not</em> consented to being the bait.” Wendy tapped the password device impatiently. She <em>really</em> didn’t want to have to be the distraction. “Come on baby, work for me.”</p><p>There was still one hallway between Seulgi, Wendy and the rapidly approaching guards but they were still on track to collide. One of the guards tried contacting the tower again. “Base come in, does anyone copy?”</p><p>All they heard was an infernal high-pitched ringing.</p><p>Yeri was watching the whole thing on her cameras. “Wendy-unnie be careful they’re almost there.”</p><p>Wendy’s password cracker had managed to find six of the ten digits but she knew it wouldn’t finish solving the code before she was caught. She turned to leave, grabbing her bag with a muttered, “Forget this.”</p><p>She didn’t make it more than a few feet before the guards found her. They surrounded her, pointing their weapons at her face and yelling at her to stand down. Wendy raised her hands over her head, dropping the bag of gear she was carrying just as Seulgi appeared behind the guards.</p><p>By the time the bag hit the ground, Seulgi was the only one left standing, holding one of the security guard’s guns in her hand. She emptied it nonchalantly, smirking at Wendy, whose mouth had dropped open. She’d knocked out the entire security team in seconds.</p><p>“You asked me earlier what I do, Wendy?” Seulgi tossed the gun away. “Well now you know.”</p><p>She brushed past the hacker and Wendy leaned down to pick up her bag, now thoroughly scared for her life. Behind her the password device beeped and the door to the server room unlocked. “Note to self: do <em>not</em> antagonize the murder bear.”</p><p>XXX</p><p>Across the street, Irene was growing frustrated. “Guys, guys you <em>need</em> to be talking with me okay? Because I don’t know what’s going on and I can’t help you if I’m blind.”</p><p>“It’s all good,” Wendy piped up. She was working on one of the R&amp;D terminals to strip the drives of data while Seulgi tied up the unconscious security guards, but not before relieving them of their weapons and radios. “Plugging in the flash drive now, it should only take a couple more minutes.”</p><p>“Good.” Irene was glad at least <em>someone</em> was trying to keep her in the loop. Just because they’d managed to break in didn’t mean it was a guarantee they’d be able to get back out. “The backups too, right?”</p><p>“Yup. Let’s go, Seul. I’ve taken everything we need.” Wendy grabbed the flash drive full of confidential files.</p><p>Irene smiled, marking off the second part of their plan. Infiltration complete. Theft complete. All that remained was the getaway. “Drop the spike, Wendy.”</p><p>The younger woman nodded, injecting a series of malicious code into the server’s mainframe. This would ensure that their tracks would be covered, at least digitally. The unconscious bodies were another matter. A second later the terminal flashed a tell-tale blue. Sometimes all you needed was a good old blue screen of death.</p><p>Seulgi peered over her shoulder at the malfunctioning monitor. She didn’t know much about computers but she knew Wendy was one of the best. “Did you give them a virus or something?”</p><p>Wendy chuckled. “Dude I gave them <em>all</em> the viruses.”</p><p>They exited into the hallway again but their victory was short lived when Yeri’s worried voice floated into their comms. “Guys? Problem. Those guards you ganked? They reset all the alarms on the roof and all the floors above us. We can’t go up.”</p><p>Seulgi shrugged and began to move away, “Welp, every woman for herself then.”</p><p>“Go ahead, I’m the one with the merchandise,” Wendy waved around the little flash drive to taunt the hitter.</p><p>“Yeah, well <em>I’m</em> the one with the exit,” Yeri chimed in.</p><p>“And <em>I’m</em> the one with a plan,” Irene cut in. My god, they were all so childish and quick to fall apart at the first sign of trouble. “Now I know you children don’t play well with others but I need you to hold it together for exactly seven more minutes.”</p><p>The comms were silent, which Irene took as a cue to continue. “Now get to the elevator and head down, We’re going to the burn scam.”</p><p>A series of acknowledgements came through the comms and Irene turned around to begin packing up her things. This unexpected snag played havoc with her plans but luckily for them Irene never went into battle with less than two dozen potential backup plans.</p><p>Seulgi and Wendy entered one of the elevators and hurriedly began changing their clothes as they began their descent. The burn scam required many things, the first of which was for them <em>not</em> to look like thieves.</p><p>In any other situation Wendy would probably have been very put off by the fact that she was getting undressed mere feet from a world-renowned assassin but she managed to stay professional. Irene asked them to hold it together for seven minutes, she could do that. Of course once that time ran out… “Going to plan B, huh Irene?”</p><p>Irene paused, halfway through gathering up her things. “Technically that would be Plan G.”</p><p>The elevator doors dinged and Yeri ran in as the two older women finished putting on their blouses and tying up their hair. The maknae nonchalantly took off her top and reached down to grab her own set of business wear. Seulgi and Wendy politely looked away.</p><p>“How many plans do we have?” Wendy asked as she used the elevator’s reflective paneling to put on some lipstick. “Is there like a plan M?”</p><p>Irene dismantled the projector and stuffed it in her duffel bag, making sure to gather up all the papers Seokjin had given her before responding. “Yeah, you die in Plan M.”</p><p>Seulgi tilted her head, “I like Plan M.”</p><p>As they approached the lobby the three women put the finishing touches on their outfits. Seulgi kneeled down to put a brace on Yeri’s leg while Wendy took out a makeup kit to put fake burns on the blonde’s face. Yeri fidgeted, the unfamiliar weight of the makeup prosthetics making her nose itch.</p><p>“Stay still, I’ve almost got it.”</p><p>The guards at the front lobby had caught on to the unauthorized descent and were now walking to the elevator, hands placed cautiously on their guns.</p><p>The elevator dinged and Yeri was the first one out, fake burns fully on display, using a cane to limp slowly into the lobby, helped from behind by Wendy. Seulgi followed behind them, carrying both of their purses. Their acting skills would determine if the plan succeeded or failed.</p><p>The guard covered his gun and stared at Yeri as the three of them moved towards the exit and towards freedom.</p><p>“Oh <em>nice</em>,” Seulgi snapped, berating the guard. “Why don’t you stare a little more, huh?”</p><p>“Sorry,” he apologized quickly.</p><p>“You gotta be kidding me,” Seulgi huffed, placing a comforting hand on Yeri’s shoulder.</p><p>“No, Seojin, it’s okay,” Yeri sniffed audibly, acting as if she was used to the staring. She turned her face slightly away from the guard so he wouldn’t look too closely at the burns on her face and notice that they were fake.</p><p>“It’s not okay,” Wendy insisted, glaring daggers at the guard who apologized over and over for his rudeness.” Tears ran down Yeri’s face and the guard rushed to open the door for the three women.</p><p>Irene pulled up to the curb of the building and looked through the glass windows into the lobby. The guard had completely fallen for the burn scam. Embarrassment could go a long way in covering up a minor indiscretion.</p><p>The team left the JYP building, gradually dropping their act as they headed for the car Irene was driving. Yeri tossed her cane to Wendy, who caught it with one hand and folded it up. They all climb in the car and Irene drove off, letting out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.</p><p>They did it. They successfully stole Seokjin’s airplane designs. Now all they had to do was send the plans to Seokjin.</p><p>Twenty minutes later the four of them were standing in a public park, watching Wendy as she worked on a small laptop.</p><p>“Come on Wendy, this is taking all night,” Seulgi complained.</p><p>“Hold on, will you? I’m working with a couple of Wi-Fi networks that have crappy bandwidth.” The hacker tapped a few more keys and held the laptop up triumphantly. She showed the screen to the others. “There you go. The designs are sent!”   </p><p>Irene nodded, pleased with the work they’d managed to do, especially for a team infamous for not working well with others. Sure, there’d been a few snags along the way but it had all worked out. And now they were about to get a whole lot richer. “Good work, ladies. The money will be in all your accounts later tonight.”</p><p>Wendy shut down her laptop and stuffed it in her bag. “Anybody else notice how hard we rocked it tonight?”</p><p>Seulgi huffed. “Yeah, well this was one show only. No encores.”</p><p>“I’ve already forgotten your names,” Yeri said.</p><p>“It was kind of cool, being on the same side,” Wendy admitted. None of them would have been able to pull off tonight’s theft alone, it took them all working together to steal the plans.</p><p>Irene laughed, “We are not on the same side. Unlike you three, I do not have a criminal record.”</p><p>Yeri waggled her eyebrows at Irene, “You are now, unnie. Come on, tell the truth. You totally had fun playing the Black Knight instead of the White Knight, didn’t you?”</p><p>Irene didn’t dignify that with an answer and without any further talking the four of them split off in separate directions.</p><p>She <em>had</em> enjoyed working with them, for the most part. But this was a one-time job and no matter how much she liked being back in the field again it was over. Her heart felt full for once as she walked back to her hotel, knowing that she’d done her part to avenge her wife.</p><p>XXX</p><p>Of course, one victory didn’t necessarily mean the entire job was done.</p><p>The next day Irene was back in her hotel room, still in bed despite the mid-morning hour. Little empty liquor bottles littered the nightstand. After the four of them had sent the plans to Seokjin they had parted ways, promising to never look each other up again. With the money they were about to receive they could hide away comfortably. And Irene had maybe gone a little overboard with the celebratory drinks.  </p><p>Which was why Irene was confused when her phone began to buzz, the caller ID showing up as Kim Seokjin. She fumbled for her phone, knocking over a few bottles in the process. “Yeah?”</p><p>On the other end of the line, Kim Seokjin walked into the BigHit office, looking absolutely furious. “You screwed me! The designs never got to me.”</p><p>Irene furrowed her brows in confusion. “No, I watched them go out.”</p><p>Seokjin entered his office and put the phone closer to his ear. He couldn’t have the wrong person coming in to hear him talking about stolen plans.</p><p>He hissed, “I don’t know what you saw but I received <em>nothing</em>.  </p><p>Irene sighed. She empathized with Seokjin, she really did. But the fact was he’d hired a group of criminals to steal his plans, did he really expect them to cooperate completely? “Look, I told you, you couldn’t trust them.”</p><p>But Seokjin wasn’t taking this well. “It is not my job to trust anybody, that’s what you were there for, Joohyun. You know what, I’m freezing the payments, I’m freezing <em>all</em> of the payments.”</p><p>That made Irene sit up, hangover forgotten. The loss of money was devastating but at the moment she was more worried about the others. If Seokjin froze their payments he’d have three of the world’s foremost criminals coming after him. What was he playing at, this was more dangerous than a simple work transaction. She needed to fix this. “All right, look. I will come over there right now and we’ll straighten this out.”</p><p>“No, no, no. Do not come here. My company has an old aircraft facility outside the city and I will text you the address. Be there. One hour.”</p><p>Seokjin hung up the phone abruptly, sitting in his chair and sipping his coffee. For someone who had been spitting threats at Irene only a minute earlier, he looked suspiciously calm.</p><p>Back at the hotel, Irene slowly put down her phone, her brain going into overdrive. Something about this didn’t seem quite right.   </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Less than an hour later and thoroughly annoyed by the latest snag in her plans, Irene walked into Seokjin’s old aircraft facility to straighten things out. She really should have seen this coming, the other three <em>were</em> criminals after all. It wouldn’t have taken much for someone to hijack the real files and send fake ones out. Truth be told, her money was on Wendy.</p><p><em>Wow, he wasn’t kidding when he said this place was abandoned, </em>she thought as she walked down an old hallway filled with broken pieces of electrical equipment. She paused when she heard Wendy’s voice coming from the room to her left. Maybe it wasn’t as abandoned as she thought.</p><p>“You wanna tell me what happened to the designs?” Wendy clearly sounded agitated. And from the sounds of things she wasn’t alone.</p><p>“What makes you think <em>I</em> know what happened?” Seulgi scoffed. Of course Seulgi was here too. But the question Irene wanted to answer was why? Had Seokjin contacted them all about the missing plans?</p><p>Wendy growled, “Look screw you dude! I bet you did it when we were coming down from the elevator.”</p><p>“Oh yeah, that totally makes sense, doesn’t it? You had the file in your grubby little hands the whole time!” Seulgi’s voice was tense and Irene knew she should probably announce her arrival and break up their argument before someone did something they would regret.</p><p>“Hold up there Cujo, I did my part, I transferred the files.” Irene turned the corner to see Wendy holding Seulgi up at gunpoint and her shoulders sagged. She <em>really</em> didn’t want to have to defuse this.</p><p>“You better get that gun out of my face,” Seulgi hissed, standing up to Wendy despite her being at a disadvantage.</p><p>“Or what? What are you gonna do?”</p><p>“…or else I’m gonna feed it to you,” Wendy replied weakly, looking cautiously at the hitter. She knew exactly what Seulgi was capable of.</p><p>“HEY!” Irene shouted, turning the corner to break up the brewing fight. Seulgi turned to look at her and Wendy immediately turned the gun on Irene.</p><p>“Were you the one?” Seulgi questioned, her head tilted in confusion. “You’re the only one here who’s played both sides.”</p><p>“You seem pretty relaxed for a woman with a gun pointed at her,” Irene said, ignoring the question.</p><p>Seulgi gazed sideways at Wendy and shrugged. “The safety’s on.”</p><p>“Like I’m gonna fall for that,” Wendy taunted her.</p><p>“No, no, actually she’s right,” Irene replied blithely. “The safety <em>is</em> on.”</p><p>Wendy’s eyes widened and she dropped her stance to look at the gun. While she was distracted Irene grabbed it and wrenched it out of the other woman’s grasp. She could have sworn she heard Wendy whine.</p><p>With that situation defused, Irene turned to Seulgi. “You armed?”</p><p>“I don’t like guns,” the hitter said, looking pointedly past Irene to a space just behind her. Without missing a beat, Irene flicked the safety off and whirled around to point the gun at Yeri, who had somehow snuck behind them all without making a sound. The two circled each other for a minute, waiting for the other to make the first move.</p><p>“My money’s not in my account,” Yeri accused, not taking her eyes off Irene. She walked around Wendy, raising her gun as Irene lowered hers. “That makes me very sad.”</p><p>Irene knew she was playing with fire here. Out of all of them, Yeri was the one most likely to take this betrayal personally. And she was the one most likely to shoot someone out of pettiness. Irene needed to play this correctly.</p><p>“Okay, Yeri,” she soothed the younger girl, slowly reaching out to lower the blonde’s gun. “Now we can talk about this like rational adults.” Everyone was here, while Seokjin was not. That sent off alarm bells in Irene’s head. So she posed a question to her partners. “Would you all come here to get paid?”</p><p>“Hell no,” was Wendy’s response, acting like it should have been obvious. “Transfer of funds, global economy and all that.”</p><p>“It’s supposed to be a walk-away,” Seulgi said slowly catching on to what Irene was saying. “I’m never supposed to see you guys again.”</p><p>Irene huffed under her breath. They’d been played. “Then the only reason you guys are here is because you didn’t get paid and now you’re pissed off.”</p><p>“You wouldn’t be?” Wendy asked.</p><p>Irene laughed sardonically. She couldn’t believe it, she had been so focused on finding out which one of them had betrayed the others that she didn’t stop to think about the obvious answer. “I mean, matter of fact the only way to get us all in the same place at the same time is to tell us that we’re not. Getting. Paid.”</p><p>A bolt of realization shot through everyone’s expressions almost at the same time. Irene would have laughed if they weren’t in such a dire situation.</p><p>As one, all four of them turned tail and ran. Irene reached one of the docking bay doors first and with Yeri’s help she managed to open the garage, directing them all out. Wendy tripped on the top stair and Seulgi pulled the hacker roughly to her feet.</p><p>“Let’s go, let’s go, everyone out!” Irene yelled, making sure everyone had gotten out of the building.</p><p>Just as she ducked under the half-open door the entire building exploded in a ball of flame.</p><p>XXX</p><p>Irene woke with a start, the bright white lights and rhythmic beeping around her telling her that she was in the hospital. She tried to lift her arm only find that she’d been handcuffed to the bed. Ugh, her head was killing her. At least she’d gotten out of that building explosion alive. She groaned.  </p><p>“You don’t like hospitals,” Seulgi observed from across the room. The hitter was also handcuffed to a chair, looking bored out of her mind.</p><p>“Not really, no,” Irene replied, sinking back down onto the bed. She hated everything about hospitals, from the fluorescent lighting that made her eyes ache to the antiseptic smells that assaulted her nose. They also reminded her of her wife’s last moments, which was something she did <em>not</em> need to relive.</p><p>“It’s about time, unnie! Wendy unnie and I were wondering when you’d wake up.” a cheerful voice drifted through the vent above Irene’s bed.</p><p>“What the--?” Irene craned her neck to look at the vent. That sounded like Yeri.</p><p>“The cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up,” the maknae explained from the room next door. She paced around the room, tossing her handcuffs from hand to hand. Pouting petulantly and still handcuffed to the other bed was Wendy.</p><p>“Where are we?” was Irene’s next question, her brain already going into overdrive to find a way out of this situation.</p><p>“Hospital just outside Seoul,” this time it was Wendy’s voice that floated through the vent. She lifted her wrist to signal Yeri to break her out of the handcuffs but the blonde ignored her.  “The local cops responded to the explosion.”</p><p>Irene blinked. Then they might still have a chance…”Have we been processed?”</p><p>Seulgi waved her ink-covered fingertips, “They faxed our prints to the National Police Headquarters.”</p><p>“Dude, if the NPH runs us we’re fifty shades of fucked,” Wendy complained.</p><p>“How long do we have?” Yeri asked softly.</p><p>Wendy ran the numbers in her head, “Thirty, thirty-five minutes tops depending on the software.”</p><p>Seulgi sighed, “They printed us twenty minutes ago. So unless we get out of here in the next ten minutes we all go to jail.”</p><p>Irene slumped back down, thinking about how she could possibly manage to escape from this one. It didn’t look good. “Yeah, yeah. Just…give me a moment to think.”</p><p>“I can take these cops,” Seulgi said a moment later, tugging against the handcuffs to test their strength.</p><p>“Don’t you dare,” Yeri warned from next door. “You kill anyone and you screw up my getaway.”</p><p>“Hey, I’m still handcuffed here. I can’t even go to the bathroom,” Wendy added.</p><p>All of their talking was just making Irene’s head hurt even more. But maybe, just maybe if all of them worked together… “Yeri! Get me a phone. We’re going to get out of here together.”</p><p>Seulgi shook her head emphatically, “No, look this was a onetime deal.”</p><p>Irene gritted her teeth. “Look, guys, here’s your problem. You all know what you can do individually. But <em>I</em> know what you all can do, so that gives me the edge and gives me the plan.”</p><p>Yeri sat down on her bed. “I don’t trust these unnies though.”</p><p>Irene paused. “Do you trust me?”</p><p>There was silence for a brief moment until Seulgi answered. “Of course. You’re an honest woman.”</p><p>That settled it then. “Yeri, phone.”</p><p>Yeri sighed from the other room, “Ugh, this is gonna suck.”</p><p>She stuck her fingers down her throat and bent over.</p><p>Wendy gagged. “Oh, ew! Yeri!”</p><p>A few minutes later Yeri was lying handcuffed to her hospital bed while a doctor leaned over her, checking her temperature.</p><p>“Nausea could mean a concussion. If you feel any more after effects or blurred vision, tell the policeman right away.”</p><p>Yeri nodded compliantly, shooting the doctor a weak smile. She knew she could play people with her charms and innocent-looking face. The doctor and nurse left the room and as soon as they were out of earshot, Yeri leapt out of bed, dismantling her handcuffs and holding up a stolen smart phone triumphantly. Next to her, Wendy did the same.</p><p>Yeri held up the keys she stole off the policeman’s belt and tossed them to Wendy, who unlocked her handcuffs and began typing. Yeri strode across the room to the vent and whistled for Irene. “Unnie! We got it.”</p><p>Thankful that the handcuffs gave her just enough room to slide over to the vent and take the proffered phone, Irene grabbed the other phone and turned to Seulgi. “Okay, so the trick here is to give them exactly what they want. They want a phone call? We’ll give them a phone call.”</p><p>She tossed the phone to Seulgi. “How’s your satoori?</p><p>XXX</p><p>It turned out that Seulgi wasn’t half bad with a Daegu accent, though Irene probably could have done better.</p><p>“This is Detective Park Seojin with National Police Headquarters. We’ve received the prints you sent us. The problem I have is that they’re sending up red flags all over the place and I’ve got my superior from Seoul on the line to speak with you. Can you please hold on a moment?”</p><p>Irene was impressed by the younger woman’s acting skills. Hell, if Seulgi hadn’t been a hitter she might have been able to rival Sooyoung’s acting with a little practice.</p><p>Next door, Yeri was taking picture after picture on her stolen smart phone while Wendy played with an image editing app. It would take all four of them to get out of this unscathed.</p><p>Seulgi tossed the phone to Irene, who calmly placed it to her ear and addressed the policeman. “Yes, Officer? This is Director Bae, NPH. Is our woman all right?”</p><p>“Um, I’m sorry I don’t follow.”</p><p>“Officer, I need you to listen to me. The woman that you’ve arrested is one of ours. She’s been in deep cover for three years.”</p><p>It was a stretch, but if the policeman fell for this they were basically home clear. A notion which came to pass a second later when the man on the other line let out an awed breath. “Seriously?”</p><p>“That’s correct. In fact, you should be receiving a fax any moment now confirming what I’m telling you.”</p><p>Even though Irene couldn’t see her, Wendy sent a thumbs-up toward the vent and sent her files to the hospital printer.</p><p>The officer on the other end of the line moved the phone away from his ear as his partner came rushing down the hallway, holding an official-looking fax.  </p><p>“Most of what I’ve just told you is classified Mr…”</p><p>“Jungkook. Officer Jeon Jungkook.” God, Irene felt bad for this poor rookie. He’d probably wind up without a job at the end of shift.</p><p>“Officer Jeon. I need to know I can trust you. Can I?” She lowered her voice to what she hoped was a slightly sexier-sounding tone. Most men loved to think they were important. Especially in front of a woman.</p><p>“Yes, Ma’am.”</p><p>Ten minutes later, Wendy walked out of the hospital, leading Seulgi into a police cruiser she’d been lent, courtesy of the poor pair of officers they’d just conned. Irene and Yeri were already inside, and as Wendy guided Seulgi into the backseat she not-so-subtly let the other woman’s head smack the top of the door frame. Seulgi turned to growl at Wendy but was stopped by Irene.</p><p>“Keep it together, children.”</p><p>“Yea, just walk it off Seulgi,” Wendy said snidely, approaching the driver’s side door and getting in.</p><p>As they left, Irene looked in the rearview mirror and noticed a nurse coming out to talk to the two police officers.</p><p>It was a damn good thing The NPH usually took forever to get back to local law enforcement.</p><p>XXX</p><p>That night at one of Wendy’s lofts the four of them gathered in the living room with a couple of pizzas and beer.</p><p>“All right you guys can stay here until you find flights to wherever it is you’re headed next,” Wendy said, grabbing her third slice of pizza and looking something up on her computer.</p><p>“I’m going to beat Seokjin so bad that he’s going to regret even contacting me,” Seulgi all but snarled, angrily devouring her slice and downing a beer.</p><p>Yeri shook her head, “Good luck, unnie. You won’t get within a hundred meters of him, he knows your face.” She tilted her head. “He knows <em>all</em> of our faces.”</p><p>“He tried to kill us,” Seulgi argued.</p><p>“More importantly, he didn’t pay us,” Yeri added, picking the black olives off her pizza.</p><p>Seulgi leaned forward, “How is that more important, we almost <em>died.</em>”</p><p>Yeri shrugged, taking a bite of her pizza. “I take that personally.”</p><p>“There’s something wrong with you.”</p><p>Wendy interrupted their friendly spat and projected her laptop screen onto the wall behind them. Irene, Seulgi and Yeri paused their eating to look at what Wendy was showing them.</p><p>“Guys look at this. Seokjin’s story is ninety percent true. He <em>is </em>the head of BigHit, JYP’s biggest rival, but check out what my little web crawlers found.”</p><p>She pressed a button and a video popped up on the wall. One of JYP’s PR representatives was holding a press conference. “…we’ve lost research that we’ve been working on for over five years. Our servers have been sabotaged but make no mistake. We <em>will</em> pursue these perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law and with all the resources we have at our disposal. Thank you, no further questions.”</p><p>Irene stood up, taking a closer look at the representative. He was displaying none of the indicators of falsehood, so he was either telling the truth or JYP had hired some damn fantastic actors. Still, she couldn’t be sure. “Could be a cover story.”</p><p>“Good thing I made my own backups,” Wendy pulled up her copy of the plans they’d been hired to steal. In the moment they hadn’t gotten a good chance to look at them. “Yeah, look at the internal timestamps on this project. They’re dated 2014, 2015. And these are buried <em>way</em> deep in the code.”</p><p>“Speak simply for the rest of us idiots,” Seulgi said.</p><p>“There’s basically no way anyone could fake these.”</p><p>Seulgi’s eyes widened in understanding. “So we weren’t hired to steal the plans back?”</p><p>“No, we were just stealing them,” Yeri confirmed.</p><p>Wendy looked up from her screen, “So then why would Seokjin lie to us?”</p><p>Irene chuckled. This man was a genius, at least psychologically speaking. Not only had he used her deep-seated hatred towards SM to get her to work this job but he’d also managed to do the same for Seulgi, Wendy and Yeri.</p><p>“Because you’re thieves. If he hired you for a straight-up crime then you’d know he was a bad guy like you and you’d be suspicious. But you saw him as just another citizen in over his head and that’s why you didn’t see the betrayal coming.”</p><p>“So then why didn’t you see it coming?” Yeri asked innocently, sniffing the bottle of beer next to her and turning her nose up. She preferred soju.</p><p>“Because I’m no thief.”</p><p>Yeri opened her mouth as if to argue with Irene but Wendy stopped her with a shake of her head. “Okay, no more arguing. We made it out alive and I’ve bought tickets to London, Rome, Paris and Sao Paulo with the IDs you gave me.”</p><p>“You’re running,” Irene stated.</p><p>“Hell yeah, do you have a beter idea?” Wendy looked at her like she’d grown two heads. Why wouldn’t they run?”</p><p>“No, no not you,” Irene waved off Wendy’s question and turned back to Seokjin’s photo on the screen. “You’re running. Hiring us and then burning us was a high-risk play. He’s probably got everything tied to BigHit’s stock price like a cinderblock. There’s a shareholder meeting coming up…Look, we can’t let this guy have any time to cool down.”</p><p>Seulgi held up her hand, “You want to run a game on this guy?”</p><p>“Well yeah. I mean, how do you think I got most of my stolen merchandise back?” Irene replied. “Look at this guy, he’s greedy, he thinks he’s smart. That’s the best kind of mark.”</p><p>“He <em>does</em> think he got rid of us,” Yeri pointed out.   </p><p>“Element of surprise,” Wendy agreed. Slowly but surely Irene was dragging them back in.</p><p>“What’s in it for me?” Seulgi asked.</p><p>“Payback,” Irene said, and Seulgi’s eyes lit up. “And if it goes right, a lot of money. Are you guys with me?”</p><p>Wendy shrugged, “Totally, I was just gonna send like two thousand porno magazines to his office but your plan sounds way better. My question is though, what’s in it for you?”</p><p>Irene couldn’t take her eyes off the picture of Seokjin. He looked so smug, like he’d won. She’d show him differently. </p><p>“He used my wife. And besides, I <em>hate</em> losing.” She paused, tearing her eyes away from the screen. Irene knew she really shouldn’t be getting deeper into this. She should just count her losses and get away, revenge be damned. But it really rubbed her the wrong way that someone could manipulate her so easily just by bringing up her deceased wife. <em>I really should work on that…</em> “All right. We’re all in, now let’s go get us a Sooyoung.”</p><p>She turned tail and headed for the door without a moment’s hesitation. The others followed behind her like little ducklings.</p><p>“What the hell’s a Sooyoung?” </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>OT5 soon, I promise. Joy's about to make one hell of a first impression.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Saturday, September 21<sup>st</sup></strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>Seoul Shakespeare Company</strong>
</p><p>Park Sooyoung’s first introduction to their little ragtag group of thieves wasn’t the best. But first impressions can be deceiving. Of course try telling that to Seulgi, Wendy and Yeri, who were staring at Irene’s contact with abject horror. The woman was absolutely <em>awful</em> at acting.</p><p>“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and fill me from the crown to the toe, top full of direst! Make thick my blood and—”</p><p>“She’s so bad,” Wendy whispered, unable to tear her gaze away from the performance. Her intonation was completely off and her movements on the stage were jerky and uncoordinated. Now Wendy didn’t consider herself an expert in theater by any means, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to look like this<em>.</em> It was no wonder they were the only people in the audience.</p><p>“—Stop up the access and passage to remorse that…no that’s not right. That no compunctious—”</p><p>“Is she injured? You know…” Yeri pointed to her head.</p><p>“Seriously Irene, this is the worst actress I’ve ever seen,” Seulgi said. <em>This </em>was the woman Irene was considering as the final addition to their crew?</p><p>Unlike the others, Irene sat at the edge of her seat, watching Sooyoung’s monologue intently with a small smile on her face. “Patience ladies. This isn’t Sooyoung’s stage.”</p><p>After the show ended, they followed Sooyoung out into the alley, bickering all the while about whether or not she deserved a place on their team. Seulgi was the most reluctant of them to even give her a chance. “No. No, I vote no.”</p><p>Irene shushed her as the actress left the building and began heading to her car. She hadn’t noticed them yet. “Yeri’s right, Seokjin knows us and we need a fresh face.” She started clapping loudly to get Sooyoung’s attention. The actress looked up and gave Irene a wry smile. “—I thought you were fantastic tonight.”</p><p>Sooyoung approached them. “My only fan.”</p><p>
  <strong>(Flashback, Paris, Seven Years Ago)  </strong>
</p><p>Park Sooyoung, otherwise known as Joy to all of her underworld contacts, hummed her favorite K-pop song underneath her breath while she worked. Another plan gone perfectly. Some people were just too gullible.</p><p>She carefully cut a painting out of its frame and gently folded up the canvas and placed it in a temperature-controlled tube. Seven other tubes lay at her feet, each one filled with a piece of art. Four of these would go to her various clients but the others? Well, Joy had a bit of a thing for hoarding precious art.</p><p>Her work was interrupted however when the door behind her burst open with a loud thud and a short Korean woman strode in, gun in hand. Joy sighed. So much for her perfect plan.</p><p>“Freeze!” Irene shouted.</p><p>Joy paused as if she was going to comply with the other woman’s orders before reaching quickly for the gun she’d placed on the mantelpiece and shooting Irene in the shoulder.</p><p>Irene gasped in shock as the bullet hit and responded by doing the same thing to Joy. The two of them dropped their guns and clenched at their matching bullet wounds. Joy was the first to speak, teeth gritted against the pain burning in her shoulder.</p><p>“You little bitch.”</p><p>
  <strong>(Present Day) </strong>
</p><p>“I’m a citizen now, Irene. Cross my heart,” Joy raised her hands in mock surrender. She couldn’t help but notice though that Irene wasn’t alone. Now that was strange.</p><p>“I’m not,” was the simple reply, and Joy chuckled derisively. What on Earth could have possibly made the most honest woman she’d ever met suddenly have a change of heart?</p><p>“You’re playing my side,” Joy stated, waiting for the inevitable refute. But it never came. She glanced behind the shorter woman at the team behind her. “I always thought you had it in you.”</p><p>Irene laughed. “So are you in?”</p><p>Joy raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow. As if she had to ask. “With you? I wouldn’t miss it.”</p><p>Irene’s cheeks turned red and she turned around, clearly a little flustered. Addressing the team, she cleared her throat. “All right. Let’s break the law just one more time.”</p><p>XXX</p><p>That night the five of them gathered back in Wendy’s loft for a strategy session. Now that they had Joy on the team that gave them a little bit more leeway with their planning. Seokjin had never met her and therefore wouldn’t know that she was playing for Irene and the others. Wendy caught her up to speed on their current shenanigans and displayed all the information she had on Kim Seokjin.</p><p>“Kim Seokjin, executive vice-president in charge of new technology over at BigHit Aerospace.”</p><p>Seulgi shuffled back into the living room with a tub of popcorn and squeezed herself in-between Yeri and Irene. Yeri reached over and snuck a few handfuls out of the tub.</p><p>“Comes from one of Seoul’s chaebol families, top college education, blah blah blah. Now BigHit is in charge of a lot of really big government contracts. Some research for Korean military, all of it very classified.”</p><p>“Can we use that?” Yeri asked, mouth full of popcorn. She had made herself at home and now had her legs resting on Seulgi’s lap. Irene wondered how she managed to do that without provoking the hitter.  </p><p>Wendy considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “No, I don’t think so, Seokjin is in charge of their commercial airline business, not the experimental tech.”</p><p>“Wendy can you pull up the very illegal copies of the designs we stole?” Irene wanted to see exactly what Seokjin wanted them to steal. If he was willing to put himself at such high risk the plans he wanted must have been worth billions of won. Wendy nodded and pulled up her copies for everyone to see.</p><p>“It’s a plane,” Seulgi stated. “We knew that.”</p><p>“It’s a short altitude domestic airliner,” Irene clarified, using a laser pointer to highlight the plane’s specs. “Usually one to four-hour flights, they’re very fuel-efficient, etc. It’s the fastest growing segment of the industry. These plans are very top-of-the-line.”</p><p>Four sets of wide eyes stared back at her. “What? You pick up a few things here and there.”</p><p>Wendy scoffed, minimizing the plans and pulling up a side-by-side comparison of BigHit and JYP Aerospace. “You pick up a lot of stuff. Check this out. Now BigHit and JYP have been rivals for decades now, and recently they’ve been racing to be the first to secure the top spot in this new industry. The winning company would make like eleventy-trillion won.”</p><p>“So JYP got there first and Seokjin took a short cut,” Yeri added.</p><p>Irene nodded. The beginnings of a plan were already brewing in her mind. It wouldn’t be easy, but with the help of these four women it just might work. “So Seokjin sees JYP as a rival. A rival that pisses him off so much that he was willing to hire us to steal the designs. This is good.”</p><p>Joy seemed to know exactly what Irene was thinking. “You’re not thinking…”</p><p>“Yeah, I’m thinking Nigerians. Nigerians will do nicely.” Irene walked off, muttering under her breath about stock holdings. As she left, Seulgi Wendy and Yeri all turned to stare at Joy. Evidently the grifter knew Irene on a deeper level and they saw Joy as the unofficial second-in-command.</p><p>“Well she hasn’t changed a bit,” Joy said, gently massaging the scar on her shoulder.</p><p>XXX</p><p>
  <strong>Sunday, September 22<sup>nd</sup></strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>BigHit Aerospace</strong>
</p><p>Kim Seokjin enjoyed feeling victorious. He’d gotten ahold of JYP’s designs and even managed to cut out the middleman by dealing with Irene and her crew of criminals. All he had to do was survive until the shareholder’s meeting on Wednesday and he’d be a <em>very</em> rich man. Well, richer than he had been. It was a good day.</p><p>He strolled into the lobby in front of his office to finish up the last of his presentation. Normally he wouldn’t be working on a Sunday but BigHit wanted all hands on deck for the meeting. Things had to go perfectly. His team had already begun to doctor the original plans to make it look like BigHit was the author.</p><p>Seokjin greeted his receptionist, a nice young man by the name of Jimin. Jimin stood up and bowed to him in greeting. “Good morning sir, your 9 o’clock is here.”</p><p>His nine o’clock? That wasn’t right, his schedule had been blocked out until Wednesday and he knew he didn’t have any meetings today. He turned around to where Jimin was gesturing, confusion evident on his face. “My…?”</p><p>Joy sat primly in one of the lobby chairs, dressed to the nines in a designer business suit that showed just the right amount of cleavage. She shot Seokjin a predatory smile.</p><p>“Mr. Kim Seokjin. Yoon So-rim,” Joy stood up to greet him, business card in hand. “Liason for the African Commercial Transport and Trade Initiative.”</p><p>Back in Wendy’s loft, Irene and Wendy huddled around the hacker’s row of monitors as they listened to the conversation between Joy and Seokjin.</p><p>“Here comes a mountain of suck,” Wendy said. She was looking forward to this exchange. If Joy’s acting was anywhere near the quality that they had seen earlier they would be dead in the water. Irene didn’t appear to be worried though. In fact, their unofficial leader was all wired up and ready to feed information to Joy through an earpiece.</p><p>“You government?” Seokjin asked, taking the business card. He’d be polite for now, something told him that this Yoon So-rim had an interesting proposition. He turned to enter his office, inviting Joy to follow him.</p><p>“No, no. Private business consortium,” Joy’s Daegu dialect was flawless. “We are looking to encourage infrastructure development and economic renewal between Africa and Asia.”</p><p>“I have no idea what that means in layman’s terms.”</p><p>Joy smiled cordially. “We create jobs and trade in Africa. Keep the graft and stealing manageable.”</p><p>Wendy stared at her monitor in shock. “She’s…not awful.”</p><p>Irene knew what she meant. Joy’s performative acting left a lot to be desired. But that wasn’t her stage. “This is her stage. Park Sooyoung is the finest actress you’ve ever seen…when she’s breaking the law.”</p><p>Wendy turned the volume up on her computer so they could catch the ongoing conversation.</p><p>Seokjin looked at Joy with an unimpressed expression on his face. “Keep graft and stealing manageable in Africa. Good luck, but I don’t think I can help. I don’t think any human being on Earth can help you with that.”</p><p>Joy turned up the charm. She expected it, and his suspicion was all a part of the plan. “Come now, Mr. Kim. Let’s go talk somewhere a little less formal.”</p><p>“Uh, no, no. Look Miss Yoon I…”</p><p>But Joy turned on a dime and walked out of his office, not even bothering to see if he would follow. They always did. She gave a smile to the receptionist, glancing at the mirror behind him and noticing Seokjin right on her heels.</p><p>Now that she had gotten Seokjin out of his office Irene signaled Wendy to execute the next stage of their plan. The hacker hit a few keys and remotely crashed the receptionist’s computer. The next bit relied on the maknae.</p><p>Jimin saw his computer screen flare with a Blue Screen of Death and began frantically hitting his keyboard in a panic. “Nooooo…come on, not today.”</p><p>Yeri meanwhile was curled in an interior duct in the BigHit building, patching herself into their phone systems. Right on cue, her headset buzzed with a call from Seokjin’s floor. “Hello, IT.”</p><p>Jimin’s voice greeted her, “Yeah, this is Kim Seokjin’s office, my computer just completely crashed.”</p><p>Yeri pouted sympathetically, turning her head to work on the last bit of wirework while she talked to him. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did you try turning it on and off again?”</p><p>“Yes, nothing seems to be working.”</p><p>“<em>That’s a computer thing. I told her to say that,” </em>Wendy’s voice came through her headset.</p><p><em>“Well done</em>.” Irene sounded pleased.</p><p>“Not to worry, we’ve got someone on your floor already. She’ll be there shortly.”</p><p>“Thank you so much.”  </p><p>Exactly thirty-seven seconds later and Seulgi walked into Seokjin’s office wearing a pair of khakis and an obnoxious plaid button-up. A pair of thin wire-rimmed glasses completed her nerd look.</p><p>“Somebody call IT?”</p><p>Joy led Seokjin to the exterior of the BigHit building, where they could talk without being overheard. “Mr. Kim, I represent a group of investors who are looking to start an airline for short tour flights in Africa.”</p><p>Seokjin seemed interested, if more than a little cautious. “In Johannesburg?”</p><p>“<em>Okay Joy, he’s testing you. You want Bloemfontein.” </em>Irene had to commend Seokjin, he wasn’t nearly as easily swayed as she thought he would be. She tucked away the information for later. Every bit of information she was able to get from Seokjin could prove helpful in the long run.</p><p>Joy wrinkled her nose, “No, we want to revitalize the regional airports. In South Africa we’re talking about Bloemfontein. But really our target market is Nigeria.”</p><p>“<em>Perfect job, Joy.” </em></p><p>“I believe new airplanes will make people more comfortable while we renew old runways.”</p><p>Seokjin tilted his head, a fake smile on his face. His eyes betrayed his true feelings though. He seemed shocked that Joy knew more than she was letting on. The perfect back and forth. Give information to get information. “I don’t recall saying anything about new airplanes.”</p><p>“Mr. Kim, please. Both you and your chief engineer are scheduled to speak at your shareholder’s meeting. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.”</p><p>“You know I think you know more about my business than I do,” Seokjin’s guard was ever so slowly being let down, if Joy and Irene could just keep him interested long enough…</p><p>“Unnie, I’m ready to go, commence operation Ice Cream Cake.” Yeri unscrewed the grate to the vent just above Seokjin’s office and dropped down onto his desk with a soft thump. Through the window she could barely hear Seulgi flirting with Seokjin’s receptionist.</p><p>“No, it’s good to have a passion. You know, I’ve always wanted to be a dancer but my career took me here…no way, you dance too? What are the odds?”</p><p>“<em>Shouldn’t I be playing the computer guy?” </em>Wendy’s voice was tinged with jealousy.</p><p>“<em>No, I need you to actually </em>be<em> our computer guy,”</em> Irene was pretty sure the only reason behind Wendy’s thinking was that she wanted to flirt with the handsome receptionist.</p><p>Yeri shook her head, ignoring Wendy as she started flooding the comms with her favorite pick-up lines. Moving to Seokjin’s computer she turned it on and plugged in a flash drive. Running her hands over the keys she grabbed the files Wendy told her to and tucked the drive in her back pocket. The last thing she needed to do was plant a bug under his desk.</p><p>“All done. I’m out of here.” Going out the way she had gone in, she waited for Seulgi to finish up with the now thoroughly enamored receptionist.</p><p>“Wow, you’ve got strong arms for an IT specialist,” Jimin said in awe, reaching out to touch Seulgi’s well-defined arms. Seulgi had to crush the instinct that told her to wrench his arm out its socket. But they had a job to do and Irene would likely frown upon her resorting to unnecessary violence.  </p><p>“Why thank you, I really like to work out. So do you, judging by the way your shirt fits.” Seulgi wanted to kill herself, she was never this openly flirty in real life. She thought she could hear Wendy chuckling over the comms. The hacker was taking way too much delight in her predicament. <em>Please hurry up guys, I don’t know how much longer I can last.</em></p><p>While Seulgi and Yeri finished bugging the office, Joy and Seokjin moved to a nearby stretch of the Han River to talk further.</p><p>“Miss Yoon, how about this? If we announce a new product then you and your people can order as many as your little heart desires.”</p><p>“<em>You know what to do, Joy. Hit him.”</em> They were reaching a very critical part of this conversation. From here on out Seokjin had to come willingly. Irene was counting on his naturally greedy personality to shine through.</p><p>“We’d also like to build the planes. More jobs, build them in Africa, fly them in Africa, sell the rest around the world.”</p><p>Joy swore she saw his eyes light up at the potential business opportunity. Just a little more… “Well that’s very ambitious. You have the facilities to do that?”</p><p>Joy waved off the idea, “Ah, we can easily raise the money to build facilities if we know for certain we’re going to get the contracts.”</p><p><em>“Atta girl,”</em> Irene praised.</p><p>Seokjin seemed to think about it intently for a minute before shaking his head. “Miss Yoon I’m really sorry but I can’t help you.”</p><p>“<em>Aw, well it was a nice try,”</em> Wendy said .</p><p><em>“Not so fast, Wendy. Wait for it…”</em> Like all good negotiations it was a battle of the mind. Each party had to work hard to make sure they wouldn’t be seen as an easy mark. Seokjin may have been well-versed in the art but Joy was a world-class master.</p><p>Joy bowed politely and made as though to leave. “I understand. I’ll take it to JYP.”</p><p>Seokjin shrugged his shoulders, trying not to make it obvious that the statement stung. “JYP? Sure, go ahead. JYP is a great company. I don’t think they can help you but…”</p><p>“They have a reputation for long-term investment, you don’t. They’re innovators…you know what it probably is a better fit for us.”</p><p>“I am well aware that you’re manipulating me, Miss Yoon.”</p><p>“Well I should hope so. Hundreds of billions of won in new contracts, a lot of good press, all of it right. At. Your. Fingertips.”</p><p>Seokjin’s confident persona faltered. A slip that Joy didn’t miss. Her manipulation was overt and she could almost see the gears turning in his head as he figured out what to say next. He was a man who liked to take risks and here she was practically dangling it in front of him. “Fine! I give up, I’ll take the meeting.”</p><p>He stepped forward to shake her hand.</p><p>Joy smiled, bowing once more to him and turning to walk away. “I’ll have my office call you. Day after tomorrow?”</p><p>“Yes, sure. Look forward to doing business with you.”</p><p>And just like that the deal was sealed. Seokjin had just unwittingly all but signed his own death warrant.</p><p>“<em>Good girl, we’ve got him. All right everyone pack it in, we’ve got two days to set this up. Kim Seokjin will regret ever crossing us.” </em> </p>
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